Honorary Degrees Are A Dubious Bit Of Pomp

Another college commencement season has come and gone. In retrospect, these are really odd affairs. The academic regalia is medieval. The solemn processions and homilies are liturgical. The speeches are futuristic, each being a verbal launching pad for the lives ready to take off. The mood is mixed, with some students delighted to leave college in the dust, and others fearful of what adulthood might bring. The music — Edward Elgar's "Pomp and Circumstance" — is early Edwardian, dating to 1901. The ceremonies highlight scholarly achievement but are often held in athletic arenas, now that a changing climate has brought us soggier springs.

But the oddest part of commencement involves the conferral of honorary degrees. This tradition dates back to 15th century England, when Oxford University had little to give beyond academic sheepskins.

Today, universities have far more to give. They give us sports entertainment, employment for thousands, sundry community services, technology incubators and plenty of awards. Yet the ancient tradition of giving away honorary degrees persists like a vestigial remnant such as the human coccyx, our primate tailbone.

For a science professor, the statement that more ceremonies are indoors due to climate change shows a very casual approach to causality. I'd like to see the regression analysis you performed linking these phenomena, assuming you even have any evidence that either variable has actually...

When I was a young and naive professor, the giving away of degrees seemed like a good idea. It was a one-off, a no-strings-attached means by which an institution of higher education could link itself to a person of distinction. In fact, the American tradition of playing "Pomp and Circumstance" began when an honorary doctorate degree was awarded to its composer at Yale's 1905 commencement. Quite often, the honorary degree is a bargaining chip, something to barter for a reduced-price commencement speech.

But the older I get, the more discomforting the giving away of unearned degrees strikes me, especially for celebrities, wealthy patrons and politicians who may already have dozens. Etymologically, these are not degrees at all, because they do not meet the Oxford English Dictionary's definition of "a step or stage in process." They culminate no course of study and are practically worthless in the job market. Far better it would be for each institution of higher learning to create a prestigious annual award for someone outside the university to be given at the time of commencement.

The awarding of honorary degrees also sets up an unnecessary dichotomy between degrees that are earned and those that are unearned. Matriculated students sacrifice years of money, time and opportunity costs for their degrees. They or their families have paid, borrowed or worked one or more jobs to meet expenses. Many graduate with crushing debt. Truly, they have earned their degrees.

Each May they hear their name called, walk the stage, reach out for the diploma, claim their prize and return to their seats. They have risen one "degree" on the pathway of a career.

Then, moments later, someone who never attended the school receives the same level of degree without having done the work, and without having made the sacrifice.

Though I can't speak for this year's graduates, "getting something for nothing" runs crisscross to my conservative family culture, where everything must be earned. Hard work counts for more than smarts. Responsibility counts for more than success. One reaps what one sows. Fads, fakery, hypocrisy, pretense and euphemisms are easily discerned.

Full disclosure. I have never been offered an honorary degree. Both of my graduate degrees were earned through sweat equity. My dissertation project was my own, supported through outside employment and defended against probing questions from a committee including three members of the National Academy of Sciences. There was nothing fluffy about the process.

So, when I hear of someone receiving a doctorate without having done the work, I try to shift the attention to the recipient's achievements and their example, rather than on the misnomer. I convince myself they are receiving a well-deserved award, that isn't passing for something else.

In writing this column, I suffer no illusion that anything will change. I just wanted to go on record against a thorn in the rose of academic culture.

Robert M. Thorson is a professor at the University of Connecticut's College of Liberal Arts and Sciences. His column appears every other Thursday. He can be reached at profthorson@yahoo.com.